


noisy (but very pretty) neighbor

by mayor_crumblepot



Series: thompkean tumblr fills [1]
Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, barbara likes a girl and the girl DEFINITELY likes her back even if she's a little annoyed right now, shameless flirting, this is just very cutesy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-25 04:19:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14370762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayor_crumblepot/pseuds/mayor_crumblepot
Summary: prompt:"you’re my neighbor and we both go to the same university, but you get drunk and throw huge parties every weekend, so now i’m pissed off because i’m trying to study for exams. so could you stop being an asshole during exam week? thanks."





	noisy (but very pretty) neighbor

Moving to a college town was everything Lee had wanted it to be. It meant freedom, it meant there were tiny little neighborhoods around the campus that she could move into, renting out a small house to make her own. (In the months that followed her moving in, she realized she wasn’t the best homemaker, but she tried her best. She really did. She bought the matching dish sets, the entire kitchen setups from the big box store; it just never looked quite right. Almost sterile.) 

It isn’t until the third week of the semester that her neighbor starts throwing parties. And, you know, Lee doesn’t want to be  _that_  person, the one who complains. Instead, she dances around her kitchen to the music that threatens to break her windows and keeps an eye out for any accidents in the yard. It would be nice to be invited, but she understands why she isn’t. She doesn’t know her neighbor, doesn’t try to, so she enjoys herself from the safety of her own home. 

When she isn’t interested in the loud music and the boisterous laughter, Lee puts Grey’s Anatomy up at top volume, or she puts her expensive headphones on and listens to classical music as she tries to study. It doesn’t bother her, she’s calm, she’s collected— she’s spent her entire life being like this. She isn’t rude, she isn’t demanding; she and this neighbor coexist on this street, she has no right to tell her neighbor how to live their life. 

But sometimes, god  _fuck._ It gets annoying.  

As the semester draws to a close, as the libraries fill up and the local coffee shops become inundated with students, Lee finds herself increasingly annoyed by these parties. It’s a nonstop weekend of loud music, starting at ten on Friday and not stopping until the sun comes up on Sunday morning. The music makes her floorboards shake, people come up to her door and mistake the address, needing to be redirected, and she finds glass bottles in her recycle bin, wrappers removed and properly cleaned out. It’s all just a little too much. 

She wants to be cool, she wants to be chill, but she’s  _this_  close to finishing her bachelor’s and the MCAT is  _two fucking months_  from now. She has it all planned out— as people pack in on Saturday night, she’s going to march right into that house and find this person, she’s going to give them a piece of her mind. They’re going to wish they hadn’t messed with Leslie motherfucking Thompkins. 

Easier said than done. 

Before she heads next door, Lee changes her outfit twice, as if to make it seem like she hasn’t spent the last week holed up at her desk in the same pair of pajamas. She pins her hair back, hiding the haphazard stress haircut she’s given herself. 

Getting inside the house isn’t the difficult part, it’s moving around people once she’s there. She considers that it might have been a better idea to come by after the party ends— it’s too late now. “Do you know who’s hosting this?” She asks, holding onto another girl’s sleeve to get her attention. 

“Barbara,” the girl says, “she’s around.” 

Two rounds of searching and Lee  _still_  hasn’t found who she’s looking for, and she’s more than a little angry now. She feels like she’s wasted her time, like she’s lost her studying momentum and for  _what?_  To say she’s been in her neighbor’s house, to say she’s attended one party this entire semester? 

“They told me someone was looking for me,” a blonde walks up on Lee, drops a perfectly manicured hand on the sleeve of her leatherette jacket, “didn’t say she was this cute, though. I’m Barbara; to what do I owe the pleasure?” 

“I’m your neighbor.”

“Oh?” Barbara hasn’t removed her hand, but she’s slid it down Lee’s arm, now cradling her elbow as if she may intend to guide her somewhere, “What’s your name?” 

“Leslie, I—” she remembers why she’s here, anger flaring up like a burn where Barbara’s hand is on her arm, “Do you have any idea how loud this party is? Exams start Monday and  _some_  of us are trying to study, it’s not like the MCAT comes around every day and—”

“You can take that thing three times in a year,” she’s waving it off, walking Lee toward the kitchen, “besides, I think you’re probably already very well prepared.” Lee bristles, blunt bangs making her eyebrows look even more furrowed than they already are, “Why don’t you have a drink? I just feel  _terrible_  that I’ve bothered you, but since you’re already here…” 

When a shot glass hits Lee’s hand, she thinks about her options. She knows she has room to say no, she isn’t afraid to do so, either. Although, she hasn’t let loose since the beginning of the semester, and she’s already all dressed up— she doesn’t know what’s in the glass but she throws it back without difficulty, “You can call me Lee, if I’ll be staying.” 

“Lee,” Barbara says her name like it’s one of the prettiest things she’s ever heard, taking her own shot, “let me show you around.” 

* * *

The next weekend, Lee settles in with her textbooks and her music, speakers up just high enough that she can’t hear the traffic sounds outside. When she expects noise from her neighbor, she’s met with one quiet knock on her door. 

It’s Barbara, arms full of alcohol and a single pizza box. 

“What are you doing here?” Lee wants to seem disinterested, but it’s hard to come off as anything but soft when she’s standing there in her pajamas. 

“I’m trying to woo you,” Barbara offers the pizza up, taking one step into Lee’s house, “starting with a peace offering. I figured I could help you study.” 

“Do you normally put this much effort into a courtship?” Taking the box from Barbara, Lee sets it on the kitchen table and goes to find some plastic cups, “Or is this because you feel guilty?” 

“It’s not  _only_  because I feel guilty,” and it’s sweet, the fact that Barbara feels guilty at all. 

“Hm,” Lee pours herself a plastic cup of whatever wine Barbara has in her hands, putting the vodka in the freezer for later, “in that case? You’re wooing me just fine.” 

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on tumblr! i'm [ mayor-crumblepot ](https://mayor-crumblepot.tumblr.com)


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